Two boats in a fleet race (Hobie 17s) are finishing downwind. No other boats nearby. RC is to the left, pin is to the right. Boat A is on port tack and is just inside the lay line to finish by the pin. No danger of not making the finish line on current tack. Boat B is on starboard and has overlap when Boat A enters the zone, but Boat B does not have the line made (pointing outside the pin). As the two boats come together, Boat B gybes with more speed than Boat A and ends up right beside and windward of Boat A. There's a chance that Boat B could sneak ahead of Boat A at the finish. Boat A is leeward and pushes Boat B up (to the left) and hails "leeward, come up". Boat B hails, "you've got plenty of room". Question is, if both boats are finishing in the three boat zone but Boat A didn't need Boat B to maneuver to give room rights to get past the pin, can Boat A take Boat B up (left) to keep her off the line and then bear off (right) to shoot the line. Or are room rights in play at the pin and Boat A is required to sail proper course and cannot use leeward rights to push Boat B off the line?
(B)lue on port, initially is required to keep clear of (Y)ellow on starboard (RRS 10)
Y, overlapped outside when the first of them reaches the zone is required to give B mark-room (RRS 18.2(b)), and if B while sailing within the mark-room to which she is entitled does not keep clear of Y, B is exonerated by RRS 43.1(b).
@4, Y has gybed onto port, to windward of B and is required to keep clear of B (RRS 11), and continue to give B mark-room.
@5, B changes course to windward, giving Y room to keep clear, and Y keeps clear.
B did not become overlapped to leeward of Y from clear astern, so B has no proper course limitation under RRS 17 .
No rule broken.
Good consideration.
The test for RRS 18.4 is ... must gybe at a mark to sail her proper course ....
B is at the mark @4. At that point, to finish as soon as possible she need only bear away slightly, not gybe.
So the test is not met and RRS 18.4 does not apply.
Even if position @5 was relevant, within 1 boat length of the finishing line, I still think her proper course would just be to bear away , not to gybe.
I get your point
My counter is, I would gybe because I think it’s faster and is therefore the proper course.
Your argument is that the proper course is simply to bear way and because that does not involve a gybe therefore 18.4 does not apply. This gives the added benefit that you can luff and not bother to actually bear way and finish. Just does not seam fair to me.
I think there comes a point when blue is luffing to become parallel with the finish line, then it becomes indisputable that her proper course is to gybe and she must do so under 18.4
There must be cases about room to round in a seaman like manner etc that I have not looked up
And to the discussion about whether I should gybe, the wind angles would not have required a gybe by me (blue) at any point of the sequence to make the line. I could either just keep going to the line and possible get passed doing so because yellow came in with more speed or use my leeward advantage to keep him away from the line until I was close enough to bear away from him and “shoot” the line, still on port.
When a protest occurs based upon 2 boats’ differing opinion of what one boat’s proper course is at the time, it often comes down to what is reasonable (we don’t have the counter-factuals to test every possible course to see which one was the fastest).
Also, remember that when “proper course” is analyzed, the other boat referenced in the rule is removed (def: proper course says “.. in the absence of the other boat..”). In 18.4, the “other boat” is the outside boat, as 18.4 limits where the “inside” boat can sail.
OK … now scroll up to John’s drawing .. and remove Yellow (the outside boat) … only Blue remains on the drawing. As Yellow protesting Blue are you going to say that if you were Blue all alone … you would have gybed at the pin to finish?… with all that line ahead of you all by yourself?
Or would you have sailed on port gybe and turned into the line at the last moment (or simply continued with speed on your point of sail)?
When an inside overlapped right-of-way boat must gybe at a markto sail her proper course, until she gybes she shall sail no farther from the mark than needed to sail that course. Rule 18.4 does not apply at a gate mark.
So she does not need to gybe to sail her proper course at the mark. B is the leeward boat, and therefore has the right of way and no longer needs to stay in the mark room lane nor constricted to sailing to the mark. I do not think any rule was broken.
Once the boats leave the pin zone, 18 is off and Blue has no obligation to sail a proper course or below her proper course (no 17). I would submit that if, for tactical reasons, Blue then chose to continue to luff Yellow away from the finish so other boats could finish ahead of Yellow and improve Blue's regatta score, that would be permissible (see case 78).
If they get into the zone of the committee boat, Yellow would then be inside and Blue would owe Yellow mark-room. At that point Yellow could bear away or gybe to finish.
https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/cases/2359
Proper course.
Listen to the OP evidence
USA Appeal US20
Mark-room is not defined to allow an inside boat without right of way to sail to a mark in a tactically desirable manner.
Conversely, a boat entitled to mark-room that also has right of way is not constrained to a seamanlike rounding.
The finishing mark was not a rounding mark, but it was a mark at which rule 18 applied.
You needed mark room to relieve you of the requirement to keep clear of Y, approaching you on starboard tack.
Yes, it would have been different finishing on a beat to windward.
However, if Y was first into the zone who would be the "outside" boat? Y would be closer to the mark, so would seem to be the "inside" boat, although it would be unable to fetch the mark without gybing. If Y were the inside boat, then B must give it mark room as they are overlapped and allow Y to get to the mark in a seamanlike manner, whether Y had to gybe or not. B would not be able to luff up Y after it gybes because the state of affairs is determined at the entry into the zone and does not change thereafter. (18.2(c)(2) would require Y to not sail above its proper course if B were to become overlapped to the inside after in the zone, but that doesn't seem relevant to Eric's question.)